Credit Security Help For Target Shoppers

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is encouraging New Yorkers to take advantage of free credit monitoring and identity theft protections that are now available in the wake of the Target security breach.

Target announced that during the holiday shopping season more than 100 million customers may have had their personal credit data hijacked by hackers.

In December, according to the DA, Target agreed to provide these services to potential victims. Scneiderman stated that anyone who has ever shopped at Target is eligible for free credit monitoring for a full year.

The Attorney General also stated that his office’s Consumer Protection Bureau is looking into recent reports of security breaches involving other retailers. Scneiderman called on those retailers to join Target in offering free consumer protections to their customers.

“Now that Target has agreed to our request to offer free credit monitoring, I strongly encourage any New Yorker who has ever shopped at Target to take advantage of Target’s offer,” Schneiderman said.

“Data breaches like this can make consumers vulnerable to identity theft and other crimes that can have devastating effects on their financial security. I strongly encourage other retailers that have seen large-scale data breaches to offer free credit monitoring to their customers as well.

Target customers can now register for free credit monitoring at creditmonitoring. target.com. The free credit monitoring will be offered through Experian’s ProtectMyID, and the service provides a copy of a credit report, daily credit monitoring, identity theft insurance (except where prohibited by law) and access to personalized assistance from a fraud resolution agent.

Target has provided the following information for consumers looking to take advantage of this program:  Consumers who shopped at Target in the U.S. may request an activation code by entering their name and email address at http://creditmonitoring.target.com before April 23rd.  Consumers will then receive an email from Target within one to five days that will include the unique activation code and instructions on how to register the code with ProtectMyID.  Consumers will have until April 30th, to register their code with Protect-

MyID.  Emails collected during the process of creating activation codes will be used only for the purpose of sending an activation code to enroll in free credit monitoring.

Consumers with questions are encouraged to visit target.com/databreach or to contact Target directly at 866-852-8680.